Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Currently watching: Atami no Sousakan

First, let's talk about Twin Peaks. Clearly, anyone watching this who doesn't know about the director Satoshi Miki may dismiss it as simply Twin Peaks with jokes. This would be a shame, although it does bear some clear similarities. Satoshi-san has obviously had some fun bringing in references to David Lynch's TV series, with people amazed by how good the coffee tastes, the twangy guitars in the soundtrack and the uniforms of the local police. But, really, this show isn't much different in tone to his previous films and it does occur to me that if you took Satoshi's stream-of-consciousness-style of story telling, and applied it to a murder mystery, you'd end up with something like Twin Peaks anyway.

The story (and I apologise for another reference) bears similarities to Picnic At Hanging Rock. In this show, four schoolgirls go missing when the bus they're on rolls away into some thick fog. Years later, one girl is found at a bus stop in a coma. She eventually wakes up, but has no memory of the event, or even of that day. The "Wide-Investigation Police" (a sort of Japanese FBI) come to investigate and this is how things begin.

The cast is golden. Odagiri Joe (best known in the West for his role as the deranged bad guy in the film Azumi) and Kuriyama Chiaki (Kill Bill) fit the lead roles perfectly, and the supporting cast is great too, including some familiar faces from past Satoshi Miki films. Notably, I was happy to see Fuse Eri as one of the local police force. She's always one of the best things in anything she does, and is an effortlessly funny and versatile actress. She's the one below with the bazooka.